RARE ALERT: Evonik said to have rekindled interest in EURO 25 billion merger with Royal DSM

I'm hearing acquisition-hungry Evonik Industries has shifted its gaze from Swiss rival Clariant back to Royal DSM, the Netherlands-based chemicals group.

In March, the Financial Times revealed that Evonik was considering a deal that would create a speciality chemicals company with a market value of about EURO 20 billion. Here is a link to the FT report:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/362b29ee-d39a-11e4-a9d3-00144feab7de.html#axzz3a7OkoocB

However, since the FT report Clariant has made it abundantly clear it's not interested in combining with Germany's Evonik.

And I have been told Evonik has moved on by rekindling its interest in DSM. Indeed, my man with the information claims Evonik actually approached DSM last week with an indicative offer of around EURO 60 a share.

DSM's board, though, met this week and rebuffed the approach from Evonik, so it's not clear what will happen next.

To be clear, the idea of Evonik buying DSM is not actually that new. Bloomberg revealed back in 2014 that Evonik is looking for a big deal, had held talks with DSM and also suggested the German company might be interested in London-listed Croda International.

However, Bloomberg reporters also quoted an Evonik spokesperson in their October 2014 article as vehemently denying it had any plans or "considerations" to buy DSM. The Evonik spokesperson said it's: "definitely not the case and there are no talks (with DSM)". Here is the link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-29/evonik-said-eyeing-dsm-purchase-amid-chemical-deals-hunt

This morning Alexandra Boy, an Evonik spokesperson, said "we don't comment any market rumours".

A spokesperson for DSM said "our policy is not to comment on rumours in the marketplace".

To remind readers, this story is RARE verging on BLEU (which is the French way of describing an extraordinarily rare steak). For readers that don't recall what RARE is, here is the definition:

Market gossip that hasn't been tested through all formal journalistic channels (public relations executives, bankers etc). The rumour might be total codswallop but then again there may be something in it, so it's worth airing on Betaville.